This is not to say that everything you see on social media is “wrong,” but it is fair to ask what the purpose of a training session is, and what skill is being taught to a child athlete. I urge people to sit back and observe, to ask questions, and to inquire why kids are being put through certain drills. To that end, I do not want to see something sensational. For youth development and training on social media, I do not want to see something sensational-I want to see something applicable, says Click To Tweet Kids are becoming worse at their sport and more susceptible to overuse and compensatory movement patterns due to social media sensationalism. While everyone provides an exuberant and electric atmosphere in their training sessions, they fail to develop the physical and technical piece for their players.

The beautiful simplicity of sports is waning, the good old-fashioned art of coaching is being lost, and the craft of teaching is becoming the art of marketing.

What we see is a circus, and instead of making kids players of their sports, people are making them puppets of social media. While there are many coaches who still do this, we simply do not see it. Gone are the days when people are out there in the trenches, coaching their tails off and being instructors of skills. Gone are the days when we see a trainer break down soccer shooting technique with repetitions on both the dominant and non-dominant foot. Gone are the days when we see a trainer break down the intricacies of pitching form over and over again, so a young athlete truly learns the motor skills behind it.

Embellished with fancy equipment, an assembly of cones, ladders, hurdles, and bands, and hype music as the backdrop, the content makes followers “ooh” and “ahh.” Youth lacrosse players juke through agility rings while tied to a resisted cable. Youth soccer players tap their feet through ladders while dribbling the ball. Whether their young clients are on the pitch, on the rink, in the outfield, on the court, or on the course, their skill work is far from simple. The social media landscape today is crowded with a bevy of accounts that complicate youth development and training.

Soccer skills training middle school